The stars may work at
the movie studios in Hollywood and the Valley, but most of them live
in the posh residential neighborhoods of L.A.'s west side: Beverly
Hills, Bel-Air, Brentwood, and the Malibu
Colony.

Sunset Boulevard, one of the
world's most famous streets, was born as a route between those two
divergent worlds. The Boulevard still links the sometimes gritty, urban streets of
downtown Hollywood to the lush, green, residential avenues of Beverly Hills.

A drive west along Sunset allows
you to experience a little of both worlds.

The name Sunset Boulevard has
become a part of Hollywood legend, the inspiration for countless songs,
movies & TV shows.

"Sunset Boulevard"
was, of course, the name of the famous 1950 motion picture starring
William Holden
& Gloria Swanson.
That movie, in turn, inspired the 1993 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical
of the same name (which starred actress Glenn
Close in the lead role of Norma Desmond.)

In the 1960's, the street
was immortalized on television, in the popular series "77 Sunset
Strip."

In the 1990's, another (short-lived)
TV show was named "Below Sunset," and starred Glenn
Frey, the lead singer of the rock group
"The Eagles."

The Eagles'
biggest-selling album, "Hotel California," featured
a photo of a Sunset Boulevard hotel on its cover, the "Pink Palace"
itself - the Beverly Hills
Hotel.

In 1985, former-Eagle Don
Henley recorded a song about life down
at "The Sunset Grill."

In the 1970's, disco singers
sang about life "On Sunset," where there were "limousines
to hide the stars, tinted glass to hide the scars... "

And the final scene in Woody
Allen's classic 1977 comedy, "Annie
Hall," was filmed at a sidewalk café right on the Sunset
Strip...

But what about the real
Sunset Boulevard?

Sunset Blvd is a long, winding
thoroughfare which begins in downtown Los Angeles, near Olvera Street
(the birthplace of the city), and runs westward over 20 miles to the blue
Pacific.

Along the way, Sunset Boulevard
passes through Hollywood (just two blocks south of Hollywood
Boulevard), then becomes the Sunset Strip
as it passes through West Hollywood, weaves its way through Beverly
Hills and Bel-Air, and finally winds its way through the rustic foothills
of the Santa Monica mountains, to finally end at the Pacific Ocean near
Malibu. Over the course of those 20
miles, the boulevard's personality undergoes several radical transformations...

There are dozens of Hollywood
attractions located along the 20 miles of Sunset Boulevard. Here is an
overview of some of those points of interest, beginning on Sunset's east
side, near the Hollywood Freeway, and heading west to the Strip:

(Even-numbered
addresses are on the south side of Sunset Boulevard.Odd-numbered addresses are on the north side of Sunset.)

Far
to the east of Hollywood, in the hilly Echo Park district (northwest of
downtown L.A.), just south of Sunset Boulevard, you'll find an exceedingly
long outdoor staircase.
This is where Laurel & Hardy
struggled futilely to haul a heavy piano up all those steps, in their classic
1932 comedy "The Music Box." It was shot
at 927 Vendome Street; just to the east of Silver Lake Blvd. If you
look carefully, you'll spot a memorial plaque in the sidewalk bearing images
of the boys.

Farther
west, but still east of the Hollywood Freeway, was KCET Studios(4401 Sunset Blvd.) in Hollywood, which offered
a free guided tour of its historic lot. Unfortunately, they sold the studio in 2011.

Just west of the Hollywood Freeway,
we encounter a cluster of TV studios - many of them former movie studios:

At
5746 Sunset Boulevard (at the SE corner of Van Ness) in Hollywood is the former location of the
Fox Network / KTTV Studios,
where they taped "Maude," "One Day at a Time"
and "The Jeffersons."
However, Fox moved to the West Side,
and a large new school was built on the site. But the Hollywood
connection hasn't completely disappeared. For most of its later
seasons, the TV show "Glee", shot their outdoor high school scenes at this school.

Right
next door is KTLA
Studios(5800 W. Sunset Boulevard) at the
SW corner of Van Ness; it's the oldest TV station in Los Angeles, and was
formerly the old Warner Bros Studio, where Hollywood's first
talkie, "The Jazz Singer", was filmed in 1927. (The exterior of the studio showed up recently in the movie "Walk of Shame".) (323) 460-5500

Just
east of Gower Street is the gated entrance to Sunset
Gower Studios(1438 Gower
Street), formerly the original studio for Columbia Pictures,
and now an independent studio where a number of popular TV shows are filmed,
including "Dexter". (323) 467-1001

At
the southwest corner of Gower & Sunset (between Gower & El Centro,
across Gower from the Sunset-Gower Studios) is a small Western-themed shopping
center named "Gower Gulch,"
complete with an "Assay Office," and simple stores. This center
took its name from the unique history of this Hollywood intersection, where
a number of movie studios were once clustered. So many movie
extras used to hang out in the area in search of work, dressed in cowboy
costumes, that the area was nicknamed "Gower Gulch."

If
you turn left (south) on Gower Street and head south for about half a mile,
you'll come to the historic Paramount
Studios(860 N. Gower Street.) They offer
a guided tour of
the studio. (323) 956-5575

Bordering
Paramount Studios on the north is the Hollywood Forever cemetery (6000 Santa Monica Blvd),
where you can see the graves of many Hollywood stars, including Rudolph
Valentino, Mickey Rooney, Cecil B. DeMille,
Douglas Fairbanks,
Tyrone Power
and Nelson Eddy.
(323) 469-1181

A
little to the west, at El Centro Avenue, is Columbia Square(6121 Sunset), a smallish CBS studio, which, during the radio era, was the site of countless radio broadcasts, such as The Jack Benny Show and the Burns & Allen show, often done before live audiences. Until recently, the studio contained
the CBS network's local affiliates: KCBS TV (Channel 2), & KNX
News Radio.
This landmark is currently being redeveloped as an ongoing project; the
existing buildings have been retained, with new structures being built
around them. (Don't confuse this with the much larger CBS
TV City, at Beverly & Fairfax.) (323)
460-3000

At
6215 Sunset (just two blocks east of Vine) is the Hollywood
Palladium, which used to feature a giant
figure of bandleader Lawrence Welk
waving his baton (his TV show was broadcast from here). It opened in 1940
as a Big Band dance club, with a Frank Sinatra concert. Its huge dance
floor could hold 4,000 people. Over the years, the giant auditorium hosted
countless Hollywood awards ceremonies, including the Grammys, the Emmys,
and the Golden Globes. Many rock acts have played here including The Rolling
Stones, the Grateful Dead, the Who, David
Bowie and the Clash. In 1973, Chuck
Berry kicked a guitarist off the stage here
for playing too loudly; he didn't know it was Keith
Richards of "The Rolling Stones"...
In 2008, they finished a multi-million dollar renovationof the old
building, bringing it up to date as a modern venue. (323)
962-7600

At
the corner of southwest Sunset & Vine is Pacific's unique Cinerama Dome
theatre, as well as the more recent ArcLight thratres (6360 Sunset
Blvd). (323) 466-3401.

About half a mile west, and on the other side of the street, at Las Palmas, is the unique Crossroads
of the Worldcenter. (6671
Sunset )(323) 463-5611.

Keep
heading west, and as you pass Highland you'll see the famous Hollywood High School
on your right side (1521 N. Highland Avenue.) Hollywood High
boasts an incredible number of celebrity alumni, from Judy Garland
and Lana Turner
to Carol Burnett.
(323) 461-3891

At
7373 Sunset (in the same rough part of Hollywood) stood a Denny's
restaurant which, for one reason or another, seemed to attract a celebrity/rock
& roll crowd in the early AM hours, after wild Saturday nights. The
"Go Go's"
supposedly chose their name while dining here, while Peter
Frampton, Blondie,
and Van Halen
have all dropped by now and then. Maybe it's the fact that Denny's never
closes... Unfortunately, this one did. The space now houses an Aroma Bakery Cafe. (323) 876-6660

Just half a block
south of Sunset, on La Brea, is the former Charlie
Chaplin Studios(1416 N. La Brea Ave.), where
the little tramp made all of his classic silent screen comedies. It's now
A&M Records. (323) 469-2411

At
7439 Sunset (right next to Guitar
Center) is The Sunset Grill,
the formerly dingy little diner in a bad neighborhood which Don
Henley sang about in his grim 1985 song
of the same name. Fortunately, the area has improved a lot (you're far
less likely to spot the "working girls" and "basket people"
Henley sang about), and the Grill itself has been gentrified. But the menu
still boasts low prices.

As you pass Crescent
Heights, you enter the city of West Hollywood
and that section of
Sunset commonly known as

Emerging
from the Sunset Strip, you enter the green world of Beverly Hills. At 9641
Sunset Boulevard, in Beverly Hills, is the "Pink Palace," the
Beverly Hills Hotel,
with its fabled Polo Lounge. (310) 276-2251

Right
across the street from the Pink Palace (at 9650 Sunset) is
the Will Rogers
Memorial Park which has made the headlines due to the antics of
George Michael.
(Not to be confused with the much larger Will
Rogers Ranch.) (310) 285-2536

About two miles west of the Beverly Hills Hotel, and just a few blocks north of Sunset (near UCLA), is the wonderful
Hotel Bel-Air(at
701 Stone Canyon Road) in Bel-Air, home away from home for
Presidents, stars and royalty. (310) 472-1211

About seven miles farther west, as you near the ocean, at
14523 Sunset Boulevard (on the right side of the street) ypu'll find the entrance
to Will Rogers State Historic
Park, in Pacific Palisades, former ranch home of the cowboy humorist.
(310) 454-8212

Another three or four miles to the wst, near
the final western end of Sunset, at 17190 Sunset Boulevard, in Pacific Palisades,
is the Lake Shrine, the
beautiful, unique garden which contains the ashes of Gandhi himself. One
of L.A.'s hidden gems. (310) 454-4114

Continue west on Sunset for a
few more blocks, and you'll finally reach the long Boulevard's end - at
the Pacific Ocean. Turn right on Pacific Coast Highway, and you'll be on
the road to Malibu!